Your Car Finance

If you used finance to buy a car, motorbike or van, between 6 April 2007 and 1 November 2024 you could be eligible. People will be considered for compensation if they weren’t told about certain arrangements between lenders and brokers (usually the car dealer), either:

• Their dealer or broker set the interest rate to earn more commission (using a discretionary commission arrangement).
• The commission was high – at least 39% of the total cost of credit and 10% of the loan.
• The dealer or broker was using one lender in most cases, a so-called tied arrangement, except where lenders can evidence that there were visible links with a manufacturer and franchised dealer. For example, where they shared a common or similar name.

On 01 August 2025, the Supreme Court ruled in the cases of Hopcraft, Wrench and Johnson. The Court upheld Johnson’s claim, establishing that the agreement between Johnson and his lender was unfair – referring to the size of commission, which exceeded 55% of the total cost for credit, as being a “powerful indicator” of an unfair relationship. This ruling confirmed that commission arrangements can give rise to compensation where the relationship between the lender and customer is found to be unfair.

Following this, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has confirmed that it has identified that many car finance lenders were not complying with either the law or their regulatory obligations, which has resulted in consumers losing out. In light of this, the FCA has published a compensation scheme, which it has estimated lenders’ total redress liability up to £10 billion if all eligible consumers take part.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has set out when Lenders are expected to begin reviewing Claims under the FCA Scheme. Under the current rules, Lenders are expected to start assessing Claims from 30 June 2026 for agreements entered into on or after 1 April 2014, and from 31 August 2026 for earlier agreements. Lenders will generally then have up to three months to review and respond.

The FCA Scheme is currently subject to legal challenge, which is unlikely to be heard before October 2026. However, the FCA has confirmed that it will defend the Scheme and that Lenders should continue preparing unless told otherwise. This is positive, as it means work on the Scheme should continue while the challenge is ongoing.

This means submitting your Claim now remains important. It helps ensure your Claim is logged and ready to be considered as soon as the FCA Scheme, a revised scheme, or any alternative process is confirmed.

The amount of compensation you may be entitled to is dependent on several factors, including the amount of finance your lender provided, the date the finance was taken out, the duration of the agreement, the interest rate you paid and the nature and value of the commission payment your lender made to the car dealership.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) confirmed in its consultation paper, that it would expect that most consumers will receive around £830 per eligible agreement.

Please note: all potential claim values used in our advertising, or on our websites are provided prior to deduction of our Success Fee.

You do not have to use a law firm or claims management company to make your claim.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has published its rules for a motor finance compensation scheme which is free for consumers to use. If you are potentially eligible and have not already complained, your lender may contact you under the FCA Scheme. The FCA has also said that consumers who complain before the relevant implementation deadline are likely to be compensated sooner.

You are also entitled to choose to be represented. If you instruct us, we will submit your Claim, monitor its progress, review any response received and advise you on the next steps available, whether the matter proceeds under the FCA Scheme, a revised scheme, or through another complaint-led process.

If you have already made a claim(s) against your lender(s) for Undisclosed Car Finance Commission, either directly yourself or by using a professional representative, regardless of whether the claim is still ongoing, under investigation or concluded, then you should not instruct us to pursue any claim(s) to those lender(s) you have already claimed/are still claiming against.

If you have already instructed another professional representative to pursue a claim(s) against your lender(s) for Undisclosed Car Finance Commission and the claim is still ongoing or not yet concluded, but you would now like us to pursue the claim(s) instead, then you will need to cancel your instruction and any contract you have with your existing representative before you instruct us. Your lender(s) may also request confirmation that you have done this and switched representatives. Please check the terms of your agreement with your existing professional representative before you cancel with them, as you may be liable to them for a cancellation fee/termination charge (or other such fee) if you cancel your contract with them or ask them to stop acting for you. Please consider this very carefully before you take any action.

Yes – you can. But you also have the choice to be represented by a firm such as ours, if that is your preference.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) published its compensation scheme for car finance claims on 30 March 2026.

The FCA has confirmed that the scheme will be free to participate in, and your lender should contact you directly if you are potentially eligible for compensation.

However, legal challenges currently ongoing against the FCA Scheme may result in the scheme being changed, suspended, or not proceeding in its current form. If that happens, you may need to consider other routes, including the usual complaint process, referral to FOS, or litigation, which you may feel that you require assistance and/or further advice on before pursuing through these alternative avenues.

If we are successful in obtaining an offer or payment of Compensation, then you pay us a Success Fee which is calculated based on the amount of Compensation your lender offers per credit agreement. The table below details the Success Fee percentage applicable to different bands of Compensation, and the maximum total Success Fee for each compensation band.

The percentages and amounts in the table above are exclusive of VAT, which is charged at the prevailing rate.

If you have an outstanding balance with your Lender they may use all, or part of, your compensation to pay this outstanding balance meaning that you may not receive any cash “in hand”. In this event, our Success Fee will still be calculated against the full compensation amount.

Example 1: If your Lender makes an offer of £1,000 compensation and you have no outstanding balance with the Lender, your Lender will pay us £1,000. Of this, £360 will be deducted to pay our Success Fee and VAT, and £640 will be paid to you.

Example 2: If your Lender makes an offer of £1,000 compensation and you have an outstanding balance of £800 with the Lender, your Lender may use the compensation offered to pay the outstanding balance meaning they will only pay us £200. We would use this £200 toward our Success Fee and VAT, which would leave a balance of £160 payable by you.

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) Scheme is free for consumers to use directly. However, if you choose to instruct us and we are successful in obtaining an offer or payment of Compensation, our Success Fee will remain payable in accordance with this Agreement, in consideration of the work we have completed on your behalf.

You may cancel this agreement at any time. However, if you cancel this agreement after the 14 day Cooling-Off Period and go on to receive an offer of or payment of Compensation, you would be liable to pay us our Success Fee if your Lender makes an offer of compensation

If you have been introduced to us via a third-party, we will pay them a fee for this introduction. This fee is usually a percentage of our Success Fee for any successful claim. This fee is paid directly from us to the third-party at no cost to you.